Grimm Eclipse: Real life online gaming
by zoddnosferatu
Summary: what would you do if you could play a game by entering your mind as the controller? Well now you can, come join the ultimate adventure that's only a click away. Follow Ruby Rose as she makes her way through this online world. Blind Ruby. non-sisters. complete authors universe. mostly the same characters, small changes to fit the new world.
"so you're saying I'll be able to see?" I asked again.

I've asked this same question over a dozen times now, I couldn't tell. But the sales man seemed to be getting annoyed with my insistence on getting a straight answer. I was asked to come here for a friend, she couldn't make the new game pod demonstration so she begged me to come in her stead. I tried to explain to her how a blind person couldn't really explain the looks of the new technology. But I ended up giving in after the tenth phone call.

"Ma'am, I can't give you a solid answer. Some of the users have shown to unlock previously lost feelings. Such as a man who lost his arm, being able to use the virtual one without issue. But someone who is blind has never been studied" the man tried to explain.

We were discussing the latest model of virtual online gaming. Technology has developed fast after the revolutionary invention of brain stem tapping. At first this new tech was crud and invasive, it involved a needle being inserted into the brain stem of a person. Most times it involved the person dying. But as the years went on new innovations came about. Now all you needed was a collar, and boom the internet was yours to experience with all of your senses.

The last ten years have been solely dedicated on one concept. Allowing anyone to fully dive into any virtual reality. So many games have come out integrating that new technology. The first being the ever popular Call of Duty. Now you can shoot bad guys like you are really in the battle, rather than just feeling the controller vibrate when shot at, now you could feel the diluted pain of the bullet. it was an addicting experience for many. some spent hundreds of hours in the game.

Little did anyone know, the untested technology had some side effects. Mainly the one where you can get trapped in the game for all time. The effect was called Severance, it was named from the severing of consciousness from one's body. Once you went over the new government mandated time restriction, your chances of being trapped in whatever game you were playing went up dramatically.

So many gamer's are still fighting the endless war of the first Call of duty, over and over again. never truly dying, always re spawning to go to war again. their own personal hell.

"Can I order this and have it set up in my house for me?" I asked the salesman.

"Certainly!" the man seemed thrilled to have a sale.

After some paperwork, mostly me signing away a few thousand dollars. I now owned a brand new Model 7 Full Dive system. The man promised to have the tech guys over in an hour to set it all up for me. It was a good thing they offered the service, I don't think me and my blindness would be able to set it up.

I raced home, the walk didn't take long, I knew almost every sidewalk in this town. So even though I was blind I could navigate home easily. Once I got there, it was a short wait for the truck to arrive.

"Good afternoon ma'am. You ordered the model 7 Full Dive?" a strong sounding man said.

"yes!" I said excited. "pleases set it up over here" I said, leading the man to an empty room.

* * *

It took the man over twenty minutes to realize I was blind. But once he asked me to sigh a clipboard (I kept trying to find where it was) he quickly caught on. But after that, he took joy in describing every detail of the pod.

He explained the device, it was a coffin like glass tube. Once you hooked it up to the internet, and selected a game you wanted to play, all you had to do was lay inside and put the collar around your neck. Of course he also explained how tampering with the time restrictions was illegal, and if I did I could be fined and maybe put in jail for destruction of government monitored property. I waved him off with the logic of how a blind girl could even find the timer thingy.

"that's all there is to it ma'am. Would you like help finding a game?" he asked, just about to step out the door.

"No, my friend is coming over soon. She'll have fun explaining all the ones out there" I told him.

I waved the man off, or I hoped I did. It's difficult to tell sometimes.

An hour of restless waiting later, my best and only friend finally got here. I heard her old beat up car pull into my driveway. I listened to her light footsteps as she walked up to my door. She knew she didn't have to knock, I could hear whoever it was depending on the car.

"Blake!" I yelled as I jumped excitedly in my seat.

"Hello Ruby, how was the product show?" she asked, getting right to the point.

I scratched the back of my head "I still don't know what you expect a blind girl to tell you about" I said

Blake waited for me to stop faking my confusion. I knew she only sent me out, just so I didn't spend all my time isolated alone in my house.

"I bought it" I said, then waited to hear if she was surprised.

"come again?" Blake asked, her voice tinted with confusion.

"the new gaming pod and Dive collar. I bought them" I explained simply

After a few silent seconds Blake said "Why? Your blind. What would you do with it?"

"that's the thing, this new model could possibly allow me to see while in the game" I said, hope in my voice

"what are you basing that theory on?" Blake asked, a tiny bit of anger in her words

I took a moment to form my response, I didn't want to confuse her "Blake. I have been blind for four years. The accident only prevents my eyes from seeing, my brain still has the proper pathways for seeing. This device should circumvent my broken eyes. So I'm going to give it a shot. And as my friend I hoped you'd give me support" I said, getting a little sad at the end

I heard a heavy sigh from Blake "your right. So have you chosen a game to play?"

I perked up "what about that one you're always talking about. Grimm Eclipse?"

* * *

So we got into a discussion about the game and all the major details Blake new about it. Starting with the main foundation of the game. Most basic players go online to have fun killing the evil monsters known as Grimm. If you kill a lot, you can even earn a living off it, the monsters drop in-game copper, silver, and gold. Plus, you can sell the rare items they drop. All of this pretend money can be used in a number of ways. It can be used to but weapons and armor in the game, as well as buy whatever else you can imagine. Another possibility is the exchanging of in-game currency to real-world money.

This is a major draw to the game, and because of the millions of players worldwide, the exchange rate isn't very high. Currently you need 1000 gold to make 100 dollars. Blake explained that, that's how she earns a living. I was shocked by that fact, but it seemed like a cool way to make money. She went on to explain how this money exchange is a huge business in the real world, and has led a lot of millionaires to permanently go into the game. Apparently Severance players are a relatively common thing in this game, the lifestyle that the game offers is an appealing one, and lots of people end up wanting to live there forever.

"Heh, if it restores my vision, I wouldn't mind living there permanently either" I half-heartily joked, but the back of my mind knew I really would.

Blake didn't respond, she knew how much it pained me to be blind, and has been with me long enough to know I would do anything to get my vision back.

Blake went on with her explanation, she explained that there were three main races, Humans, Faunus, and androids. Each had their own classes, or types of special skills that were grown and used to make your character personal. I didn't want her to get too detailed into it all, I wanted to learn it all when I played. I liked playing a new game and learning along the way, it makes it more exciting.

After most of the explanation was done, she helped me buy and install the game. She said after I was in the game, she would drive home and meet up with me. I was glad to have a friend to help me in the beginning.

The collar clicked around my neck, and I felt the electrical impulses going to my body start to slow. My muscles were growing weak, and I started to drift off into a fake sleep. It was all the work of the gaming pod, it was made to put your body into a state of rest, but keep your mind active. The collar did all the rest.

* * *

WELCOME TO GRIMM ECLIPSE

Let's begin with your character

Please select a race

[Human] [Faunus] [Android]

I could see! I was blown away by how simple it was, the image looked as if I were seeing it with my own eyes. I was so thrilled by my vision, the pod thought I was in danger. It must have thought I was having a heart attack, and it kicked me out of the game.

* * *

Blackness returned to me. But the joy of my previous vision was still running through my mind.

"Ruby! What happened, the pod suddenly started beeping and shut the game down?!" Blake said, panic in her voice.

I "looked" at her, my smile hurting my face from its size "I could see" "I COULD SEE!" I yelled the second time. I jumped into Blake's hands, hoping she would be ready to catch me.

"that's amazing! What are you waiting for, get back in there" then she added "just don't have a heart attack this time" she half joked, I knew she was still worried

I calmed myself down, and allowed the pod to put me back into the game. The same message greeted me, and I managed not to totally freak out from joy.

* * *

WELCOME TO GRIMM ECLIPSE

Let's begin with your character

Please select a race

[Human] [Faunus] [Android]

I decided to keep it simple, I planned on spending a lot of time in here, so I wanted to make it an enjoyable experience. Being Human in this world had a small advantage, it gave your character a mana bonus of +10 for every level. The Faunus Race received a +10 to health for every level, while the android didn't give any level bonuses. Hardly anyone played as an android.

Congratulations

You have chosen [Human] once you select a race you may not change it.

Are you sure you wish to be a [Human]?

[Yes] [No]

I thought the word to select it 'Yes'

Please select a specialty

[Spell caster] [Rouge] [Priest] [Monk] [Hunter] [Samurai]

I knew which one I had to be, it called to me somehow. 'hunter' I thought to the game.

Congratulations

You have chosen to uphold the balance of peace in the world

But this power comes with a cost, creatures of Grimm will seek you out as a target

Are you ready for that responsibility?

[Yes] [No]

That's worth it 'Yes'

Congratulations

Now to customize your character

I filled in everything with the [Auto detect] feature, this allowed the pod to scan you and make the character match the way you look in real life. Blake said she did it that way, so it seemed safe enough. The person now revolving in front of me looked almost identical, the only change I knew, was my eyes. Blake told me my current eyes were white, only having a faint pale outline of where the color used to be.

But my character had deep silver eyes. The game must not be able to recognize white, or blindness. But I liked the color, it seemed to fit in well with my computer generated face.

Name selection came next. I wanted to keep my name, Blake said all she had to do was make up a last name, and she kept her real name. I tried my name several different ways. Eventually I found a combination that worked. Ruby Rose. I was amazed at how such a beautiful sounding name hadn't been taken already. I counted my blessings and went to the next phase

Music started to play, it was an upbeat pop song.

WELCOME

Ruby rose, you are about to spawn in the starting location for all [Hunter] class.

Good luck and happy hunting.

The world went black. I stifled momentary panic, the fear of already losing my new found eyesight almost got the better of me. But the world loaded up around me, it started in a grey-scale, and as I began the spawn countdown, the world started to gain color.

[10]

[9]

[8]

The colors of the world were becoming more brilliant the I could ever imagine. The loss of my eyesight felt a lot more painful now. I had been missing out on such beauty. The brilliant colors of the forest I was in almost overwhelmed me, and still they got more vivid as the countdown kept going.

[7]

[6]

[5]

[4]

Again, the feeling of sight was almost bringing me to tears. I knew right then. I was going to stay here. Permanently.

[3]

[2]

[1]

The spawn sphere I was being held in melted away. And the full beauty of the world hit me like a Mac truck. The light breeze blew my heir, the smells of forest greenery tingling my nose. I looked around, trying to absorb every ounce of color, looking at every object within view. I didn't want to move, the beauty of everything was enough to hold me in place for what felt like eternity.

But the games interface popped up a message

Welcome new Huntress

In this world, you have taken up the task of protecting the everyday people from [Grimm]

The population of this area is low, so not many Grimm are around, make your way to the nearby town of [Patch]. There you will be able to spend your [Skill points] {current skill points 30}

You can also purchase a weapon and armor with your available funds. {current funds 0}

There are tasks you can take up to earn funds.

Whelp, better get moving. My new journey awaits. I wanted at least to manage acquiring a weapon before Blake found me. I walked in the direction of the path I landed on, the game somehow allowing me to feel which way was the correct path.

I took in all the sights I could as I walked. Everything filled me with both pure joy, and nostalgia from when I was able to see. After some time walking, I looked down and saw a small bush of flowers. I looked closer at them, and jumped back a little at the box that popped open

Wild Roses

Rarity: common

Uses: can be used as a spell ingredient

Would you like to harvest the [wild roses]?

[Yes] [no]

I decided to do it, they were beautiful and I liked the fact that I shared my new mane with them.

The flowers were now the only thing in my bag. Apart from the starting supplies. It turns out the drop rate for them is random. So even though the bush looked as if it had a dozen flowers on it, I only got three from it.

* * *

After that, the walk was relatively short, I made it to the town soon enough. I think it was intentional, it gives the player a moment to become familiar with all the game settings and GUI layout.

I looked closely at the sign outside of the city

Patch

Population 27

This town is a protected area. any act of hostile intent will result in the banishment of all members involved

"Good to know" I said aloud

As soon as I crossed the towns border, a message popped up

[New quest alert]

You have made it to the town of [Patch]

Now you must get a weapon to train and fight with. There is a man here who is a master weapon maker. Go to him and acquire your arms

{Quest: Find Uncle Crow}

So I set off, the shops in the town were labeled. And about four shops in I read one that said [Crow-Bar]. It had a crowbar hanging from its sign. I stifled a laugh at the cheesy pun and stepped inside

*ring-ring* a small bell rang as I walked through the door

The NPC stood at the counter. Wiping the same spot over and over with a dirty rag. I walked up and asked

"Are you Uncle Crow?"

He looked at me and gave a smirk like smile "Who wants to know?"

"I'm Ruby Rose. I want to be a Huntress" I said

Crow seemed to pause in thought. Then finally said "and let me guess. You need a weapon?"

I nodded. I didn't know how much it would cost, but the game would be almost impossible to play at this point if I didn't get one.

"I'll tell you what. I've got a puzzle, if you answer correctly I'll give you a free high-class weapon. But if you get it wrong, you can just take one of those until you get enough Silver to buy your own" Crow said

[Quest completion alert]

You have found Uncle Crow. But the years have been hard on him. He doesn't seem like the type to just give away his goods. But his riddle could prove beneficial to your job as a [Hunter].

{Quest update: answer Crows riddle}

[Prize: an unknown Weapon]

This game was awesome, sure it gave away the bad weapons for free, but to start out with an upper tier weapon. That was a truly valuable prize.

I accepted the Quest, and Crow pulled out a mechanical looking sword "what is the type of weapon is this?"

I almost blurted out, Sword. But I stopped myself. this was a riddle. the game makers wouldn't make it so simple. Sure, it looked like a sword. It was silvery gray and sharp enough to cut anything in half. But something pulled at me. I leaned in real close. No popup telling me what it was showed up.

'duh, why would they just give away the answer' I thought

But just as I was about to pull away, a tiny window appeared on my GUI.

(010101010101010)

Quest level: legendary

Chances of getting correct: 0-100%

I pulled my head back. The message box was all blurry and covered in binary code. It didn't look like I was meant to see it. But the information it gave me was interesting. It said it was impossible to answer this question correctly.

I mentally took a step back. I went through every word Crow said. He asked me to guess the type of weapon. But what if that was it, what if it wasn't a weapon?

'then what could it be?' I asked myself

I looked around the room. My eyes fell upon a window, outside was a small field of some sort of tall grass.

'I wonder how you harvest that? It can't be like the Roses. It has to take some sort of tool. What was that tool called again?' I thought to myself

I did this sometimes. Whenever I was stumped with a question, I allowed my mind to wander to different topics. The original question was still being processed, but my mind didn't try to focus too much on it. It allowed my more skilled sub-conscious to work out the problem

'oh. I remember the name of that tool!' I thought in excitement

"it's called a Scythe!" I slapped my hand over my mouth. I didn't mean to say that aloud

Everything in the shop seemed to freeze, then start back up again.

"well I'll be" Crow said

[Quest completion alert]

You have successfully completed a Quest

You have managed to work out Crows riddle.

{Quest award: one combination Scythe and any weapon you wish to combine it with}

[fame award: you are the first person on the server to complete this quest. You are awarded +400 fame points}

Fame points are a system to give your name meaning. Fame points can give you many things such as. Cheaper prices in town shops. Better Quests from NPC's, Etc.

I closed out of the window, the shock of getting it correct was still plastered on my face. I watched as Crow walked through the door behind his work desk.

A moment later he came back out holding a giant hunk of metal "so, this is known as a [dual form] weapon. The first form is this"

He held out the metal box, and it exploded into moving metal parts. I watched with all my might. It was so real I had to remind myself about me being in a game.

"however, it can't be used while it only has one form. What would you like the other weapon to be?" Crow asked.

I took a moment to think about it. I wanted something useful. Something not similar to the Scythe. Crow made his, a sword and a scythe. Kind of like hitting the same bird with two stones.

I decided on a gun. But what gun? There are so many to choose from.

'The scythe is already a close range weapon. So I'll need something for medium and long range' I thought to myself.

After a moment, I narrowed it down to a sniper riffle. but now I had to decide on the caliber.

'thank goodness Blake talks about this game nonstop. I think my brain picked up on more knowledge about this game then I realized' I joked with myself

I looked back at Uncle Crow. The NPC was still holding my scythe, waiting patiently for me to answer his question.

"A .50 caliber sniper riffle please" I said, choosing the biggest thing I could think of

I could almost feel the games gears start to grind. Never has such a weapon been created in this world. But the game worked itself out after a moment. The games AI, or artificial intelligence was what controlled all aspects of the game. I think Blake called him Oum. Anyways, he is like God here. Whatever he does, becomes law. Whenever there is a glitch, or an exploit. Oum swoops in and fixes it. This used to take a whole team of humans, but whenever humans tried to fix problems, it usually led to more problems. Now almost all games were run and maintained by AI's. it was simple and efficient.

I could feel Oum crunching the numbers on my new weapon. He had to make it balanced with the other weapons already in the game, but a sniper-scythe was like throwing a car in a pond. It was going to make a few ripples.

After the game finished its number crunching. Crow came out from behind the same door again.

"Here you go" Crow said. Handing me my weapon

I took it and left the Crow-bar. I found a bench near the shop and sat down. I wanted to take a look at my weapons stats.

Name: blank

Weapon type: Dual form

Weapon XP: 1/200

Weapon level: 1

First form: scythe

Farming tool

Attack damage: [65] +15 crit +.3 movement speed

Second form: sniper riffle

.50 caliber

Type of ammunition: .50 Dust rounds

Reload time: 8.7 seconds

Weapon bonus: chance to behead. Beheading leads to instant death. Cannot use this ability on players.

I read through it all. I was blown away at its power. I didn't have any Dust rounds, whatever those were. But the attack damage on this was already high enough to take me through the next dozen levels. All I had to do was increase my movement speed, then I could do even more damage with it.

I wanted to name my scythe. I wanted it to hold the same beauty as my in-game name. I decided on Crescent Rose. It seemed to fit, the blade curved like a silvered crescent moon. With this new name, I messed around with the color settings. The options were too many to count, but most cost coins. The only

'didn't that fist quest say I could spend my skill points while in a town?' I thought to myself

I opened up my character stats. Yep, everything was all zero. I looked at available points. 30. I looked at where I could spend it

Strength:0

Constitution: 0

Intelligence: 0

Wisdom: 0

Dexterity: 0

Charisma: 0

The safe and wise thing to do was put 5 points in every category. But what's the fun in that? I looked through all the ways these stats were used. Will power was, wisdom and constitution multiplied, attack power was strength and wisdom multiplied. And the one I was interested in, movement speed, it was dexterity and strength.

I did some number crunching. I wanted maximum speed, but I didn't want everything to be useless. I decided to give everything at least one point. I gave two to strength, but gave the rest to dexterity.

It turned out well. I also looked at the extras being a [hunter] gave me.

[Hunter] proficient in all weapons. +1 wisdom for every level and +1 intelligence for every level.

I didn't feel bad about not giving those skill points now, they would get a free one every level anyways.

I looked at my movement speed. It read [30]. Perfect, that means I'll get 9 extra damage on bad guys. That means without criting I'll still do 74 damage. Everything fell into place.

I walked out of town, I needed to find some Grimm to kill and make some money.

It took a lot of walking. But I managed to find a spot where a few lone Grimm were spawning. I watched and counted their numbers. Five in total, not a lot. But the massage did say this area was almost Grimm free.

I got close to one, triggering its aggro range. The beast charged at me. I looked at its name badge

Grimm: borabatusk

Level 3

HP 40/40

I laughed on the inside. My baby could cleave it in two with ease. Right as it got within range, I swung my scythe. It seemed to swing on its own. It must be the game teaching me how to use the weapon. The Grimm didn't stand a chance. Its body was literally cut in half.

I walked over and placed a palm on its body. A sound of money being dropped in a jar rung in my ears. I looked at my character info, there it was 6 copper pieces!

The body didn't have anything else and quickly turned into black ash that blew away in the wind.

I did the same thing with the other Grimm. I got a total of 29 copper from all five. Not a bad start.

A message popped up in my face

[Warning]

You are getting hungry, Aura and heath regeneration will slow to a halt if you do not eat.

Please find something to eat and drink soon

This game really was real to life. It had a built in hunger system. And you couldn't just ignore it, the danger would be to great.

* * *

I walked back to town. A smell in the air hit my nose and pulled me to its sorse

[Patch's bake shop]

A familiar bell rang as I entered.

"hello sweetie. What can I get you today?" the elderly woman asked me.

She was giving me a strange look. Like there was something growing on my face. I had put Crescent Rose away, so it couldn't be the shock from seeing that. Weird.

I looked at her a second "you're not an NPC. Are you?" I asked

"no my dear. I work in the game as a pastime, it allows me to bake all I want and never run out of goods" the woman smiled sweetly "but you look hungry, what would you like?"

I looked at the baked goods. One caught my eye

[Cookies by the dozen]

12 cookies for 1 copper

Weight: 0

I placed all 29 copper on the table "a glass of milk, and the rest of it in cookies"

The woman looked at me funny again. I did just order 25 dozen cookies. But the stats on them were too good to pass up. I could carry around all of these and not slow my movement speed. According to my character info, I could carry 120 pounds and not effect my movement speed. My character came with 100 storage slots. Only a water skin, the roses, and Crescent Rose were on my person.

"here you are dear" the woman said

She placed down a plate with a dozen cookies, the rest were in a bag tied with a red bow. It all sat on top of a pile of fabric. I looked up at the lady. She smiled sweetly and said

"while it's technically not a mandatory part of the game. Running around in your under-roos isn't something a lady should do"

I blushed at the realization. I had been basically naked for the past couple of hours. I hastily grabbed the now realized clothing from the table, and followed the lady to a back room. I placed the clothing on, I turns out all I had to do was drag it over and click it into place. The game mechanics were still so new to me.

The outfit was my kind of simple. It was mostly black with red pieces to give it some color. It was simple black boots, black leggings, a red skirt, a red shirt, finished off with a black corset. The perfect amount of style and movement. It weighed practically nothing. The reason for that was its absolute lack of armor protection. But I figured with my movement speed, I would be able to out run most attacks.

As I was enjoying my meal, the flavor actually real to life. My message box dinged and a number 1 flashed in the corner of my GUI

[To Ruby Rose]

[From Blake Belladonna]

Love the name, i just logged in and am on my way to the city of Vale. It should be a short air ride away from your location. I'll send you some startup money, so you don't have to spend ages just to buy a simple weapon. Come as soon as you can.

{attached currency: 50 Gold coins}

I sent a reply telling her I was on my way, and had a surprise for her in way of my weapon. I also sent her a mountain of thankyou's for the money.

After thanking the old lady, and sending her a gold coin as "thankyou" I found out where the Airship was. She told me and waved me off. It was a short jog to the area, and I paid for a pass. The ride took no time at all, and I was at the town of Vale.

* * *

Blake was waiting for me when I stepped off the airship. Her outfit looked nice, it was simple and not overly telling everyone she was a Rouge. Her Faunus ears were cute though. The light purple, contrasted nicely with the gray and black of her outfit.

"cool outfit. How long did you spend in your underwear before you got it?" Blake asked. She knew me too well

I blushed at the memory "Shut up. and a long time, I got it right before your message. A nice old lady gave it to me out of pity" I explained then added "yours is cool"

Blake laughed. Actually laughed at me. "you are adorable. But a more serious note. How does it feel to have your sight back?" she asked, becoming serious

I paused, she raised a point I was still so ecstatic to even put it to words. The feeling was like every dream coming true in a matter of seconds. My vision, which had been abruptly taken away, was now mine again. Sure, I had to use a game as a middle man to see again. But the joy of seeing outweighed it by a million fold.

"I can't describe it. It hasn't really set in yet" I said, my voice sounding whimsical and far away

Blake seemed to expect my answer "so, you have about two hours till the time on the pod kicks you out of the game. Do you wanna do some power leveling?"

I didn't want to think about leaving so soon, the thought of being thrown back into blindness terrified me.

"what's that?" I asked, covering up the fear with a distraction

Blake started guiding me to the other end of town. She explained the concept of "power leveling" she said it was when a small group of people worked together in order to give the weaker member a fast road to a high level. I was still level 1, Blake was level 46. As long as I did 51% of the damage to the monster, I would get all the XP.

It seemed like a fool proof plan. As she led me through town, I was amazed by all the players. So much armor shining in the light, weapons of all possible imagination were on display in shops. The town made Patch look like a drop in the ocean. This place had everything. Food venders were placed a far distance apart, clothing and armor shops were common but not overdone. I noticed a few places selling [Dust] and stopped Blake

"Wait here. I need to pick up some stuff for my weapon" I said, dashing into the store

Blake bit her tongue, I told her my weapon would knock her socks off, but she had to wait. I entered a store cutely named [From Dust till dawn], the name was the only reason I chose it. An old man, greeted me. I looked at his name, the icon above his head told me he was an NPC. Walking up to the counter an interface opened. There I was able to buy the basic Dust items. They had simple iron bullets for my sniper.

10 Gold later I had 50 bullets, that gave me ten cartridges to fire with. It worked out vary evenly. The bullets didn't do as much damage as my scythe, but the long range made them much more versatile.

Rejoining Blake, I gave her my nod of readiness and we set off. The moment we crossed the border to the forest a pop up showed itself to me

* * *

[Warning]

You are entering an area where the level of monsters is higher than your own. We suggest heading to the nearest safe town and finding a different path

"Well that doesn't sound vary inviting" I said allowed

"Humm?" Blake looked at me, confused by my outburst

"apparently everything in here out ranks me" I said, pointing above my head at my name badge, and the level 1 on display

"oh! I wouldn't worry too much. My level is too high for here, so between us we shouldn't have that much trouble. You'll attract them, I'll scare them away, it'll balance out well" Blake explained

It showed how much Blake played this game. I was more than happy to have such a good friend helping me through the boring beginning parts. Leveling alone sounds like a boring thing to do.

The forest proved to be a popular place, lots of players were out killing Grimm. Most of the were between level 5 and 20. Blake was by far the highest in the area. I was surprisingly not alone with my level 1 status, a few others in groups were out killing Grimm with people. It made me feel much less out of place.

* * *

The walk didn't take long. We found a place far enough away from the others so we didn't anger them by stealing their kills. Once there, Blake explained the plan. She would go out, find a Grimm, bind it and hold it away from me, while I did damage. Once it was past half health, she would kill it quickly and pull in another.

With the plan set, she went out for the first Grimm. I pulled out Crescent Rose and deployed her into scythe mode. Blake came running back, two Grimm following her. I looked at the names

Grimm: Beowolf

Level 7

HP 80/80

Grimm: Beowolf

Level 8

HP 85/85

I didn't wait for Blake to make it to me. I ran with all my speed, and struck both creatures on the neck. It turns out, if I get lucky, and the enemy is distracted. I can decapitate it, killing it in one hit. It probably wasn't a very simple thing, but the Grimm were still on the weak side so my attack went through with ease.

[congratulations]

You have leveled up

Current level: 2

XP until next level: 117/ 250

+1 skill point +1 intellect point +1 wisdom point

I closed the message and looked at Blake

"What the hell" Blake said in a shocked stupid voice

I twirled the scythe over my head in a show of glinting red and silver "it's nice ain't it?"

"H-How?" Blake said, her eyes locked on my weapon

"the first quest for being a hunter is answering a riddle. I think I was the first person to guess it right" I explained

For Blake's shock and awe, she did seem to take it all in stride. Her next question was what I was waiting for.

"so what did you need at the Dust shop?" she asked, faining neutral interest.

In the biggest show I could think of, I spun the scythe in the air, hitting the mental buttons to activate the folding mechanism. In a show of unreal engineering, the giant metal weapon folded in on itself. The scythe, which was larger than me. Was now a box like sniper riffle. the body was mostly a red rectangle, it had an adjustable shoulder butt, the barrel was what gave it away as a gun. It stuck out far enough to know this was meant to shoot a long distance.

Blake was shocked silent. Her mouth gaped open, the unbelieving expression allowing me to almost read her thoughts 'No fucking way!'

Off in the distance, I saw a shadow move. To show off my weapon, I crouched down the way I always saw in the movies. Taking a knee and propping the gun against my shoulder I took aim at the monster in the distance.

*Bang*

The dust round was about ten times louder than a normal bullet. The kick on it wasn't as bad as I assumed, but it would still take some getting used to. Blake almost jumped out of her skin at the sound. I realized too late the reason why. If my normal human ears were ringing from the sound, I can only imagine the pain of her enhanced cat ears. It must have sounded like ten shots all at once.

"oops. Sorry" I said, sympathy running deep in my voice

"DID YOU GET IT!" she asked, it was a yell. I must have really damaged her ears

I nodded, figuring she wouldn't be able to hear me.

"HOLY CRAP!" she yelled again

I smiled at her, I was excited I was able to impress her. I didn't think this game had anything left for her to discover. It just goes to show you, the game can change at any given moment.

* * *

After my show of skill, we got back to work farming mobs. Blake kept bringing more and more groups of Grimm. Making the groups larger and larger as she tested how many I could handle at once. She was bringing almost every kind of Grimm available. I did my best to decapitate as many as I could, I didn't want to waist the energy. I knew if I dragged out the fight with them, I could end up getting hit by one. My armor and health were so low I didn't think I would be able to survive many hits from higher level monsters.

The loot was impressive, at least for such a noob player like myself. I ended up making 46 Gold, and that was after paying Blake back! The Grimm also had the rare chance to drop items. Mostly useless bone chips and shiny rocks. The bone chips were said to be a small piece of the Grimm's armor, but it wasn't useful and so common no one bothered collecting them. The rocks however, could be useful. If you found rare ones or some pretty enough, people would make jewelry out of them in the game.

My character ended up looking like this after we ended the mob farming.

Name: Ruby Rose

Level: [10]

XP: 855/1000

HP: 250/250

Aura: 210/210

Skill points available: 9

Blake looked at me, seriousness showing in her face "Ruby. The time is about to end for the Dive system, the normal thing to do would be switching to 3D mode, and playing until the timer resets. However, For you that's not possible. You need to stay calm when you return back to your blindness, ill rush over as fast as I can. Remember, you can see now. You just have to adjust to this new system. Okay?"

Her sincerity hit me hard. I knew what she was telling me, she knew me well enough to know how this was going to hit me when I went back to the real world. Her honest and sincere feelings filled me with confidence. Her being there for me meant more than she understood.

As if the universe could hear us, a system message popped up, this wasn't one from the game, it was from the gaming pod.

[Warning]

Your Dive gaming time limit is about to end, we suggest saving and leaving the Dive game interface. 3D mode will still be available to play if you wish to continue with your game. Have a nice day.

I gave Blake my best look of confidence, and logged out. And the familiar cold hug of blackness swallowed me up again, making me feel 14, the desperation and longing for sight returning with full force.

"H-Help me" I choked out, my face already wet with tears.


End file.
